External debt rises 5.8% to $365 billion in Apr-Sept

India’s external debt went up by 5.8 per cent during April-September at $365.3 billion on the back of higher NRI deposits, short-term debt and commercial borrowings. This is higher than the country’s foreign exchange reserves that stood at $294.8 billion for the week ended September 28.

This represented a cover of 80.7 per cent to the total external debt stock at the end of September vis-à-vis 85.2 per cent at beginning of this financial year.

As per data released by finance ministry on Monday, the long-term debt stood at $280.8 billion as on September 30 marking an increase of 5.1 per cent while the short-term debt jumped by 8.1 per cent to $84.5 billion. Long-term debt accounts for 76.9 per cent of India’s total external debt while the remaining 23.1 per cent is accounted by shot-term debt.

Component-wise, share of commercial borrowings was highest at 29.8 per cent in this financial year, followed by NRI deposits (18.3 per cent) and multilateral debt (13.9 per cent). Government (sovereign) external debt stood at $81.5 billion, (22.3 per cent of total external debt) at the end of the second quarter vis-à-vis $81.9 billion (23.7 per cent) at end of March. The ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange reserves increased to 28.7 per cent at end-September from 26.6 per cent at March-end.